.. This was bl00dy difficult getting out of the wall mounted mini rack. My long screwdriver could have done with being about another three inches longer as well!

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"Right actions in the future are the best apologies for bad actions in the past."

The 'XL' is what's wrong

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www.mellowd.co.uk/ccie/

Don't worry, I'm fixing that. Why do you think I'm walking along with it

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"Right actions in the future are the best apologies for bad actions in the past."

genious

your magnetic wristband making it hard to remove metal?

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"I will prepare and some day my chance will come." - Abraham Lincoln
http://danielhertzberg.wordpress.com - I blog about networks!

Unrelated problem: Cisco needs needs to standardize on one rack mount kit (or one for 1RU devices). I'm tired of having one for routers and one for switches, and HOPE that I have the flat-head screws and not the ball ones. This can apply to server manufactures too. Once you misplace one, you're better off buying new once because they won't work across platforms.

I've always received tapered screws that fit snug into the bracket. Anything else just protrudes and makes it difficult to get in and out of the rack..

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"Right actions in the future are the best apologies for bad actions in the past."

After a similar situation I decided to leave the stuff in there for the history. I was about to chop up the whole cabinet with a cut-off saw

wow, i hope the guy who didnt instsall those ears isnt hte one setting it up. i wonder what he could have done ?!?!

i am sure there is a reason for the backward ears

definitely the bracelet

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http://blog.alwaysthenetwork.com

lol

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"Right actions in the future are the best apologies for bad actions in the past."

You laugh, but I've been party to this sort of installation. The "engineer" that I was working for (on the side) had bought a wall-mount rack... for MUSICAL GEAR (it was a lot shallower than it needed to be).

We had to use it, though, because he was a cheap @#$%#$^ and the network had to be up, NOW. (Isn't that always the way?). The only way the gear would fit was if we did this.

That's nothing.

Once I installed a huge APC battery unit 2x 3000 series if I remember right. The rackmount was a POS and we ended up somehow jury rigging it into place using server rack gear and reversed rack mount ears with non-standard screws. We screwed it into place from an awkward position and managed to strip almost every screw using a drill that had no adjustable torque and even broke the head off of a couple screws. Whoever is going be the poor sap in charge of dismantling it in the future is going to have a really bad day. I felt so guilty that I left an apology note in between the units expressing my utmost sincere remorse for the guy. I left my name out of the note though.....

We should really start a "post the worst crap you've seen or done in a wiring closet" thread..

thats easy... Cisco 2916s wired via split pairs, to 66 blocks with cat3, running to the desktop..

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"If you're good at anticipating the human mind. It leaves nothing to chance."
-Jigsaw

The last company I worked for, they had some just STUPID stuff done, like taking an ethernet patch cable, splitting it into a "Y" (intact RJ45 at the patch panel, and the split-out pairs going to two RJ45s at two switch ports) for the drafting department. Their reasoning was that "the software requires this setup for authentication to the Autocad server on the other side of the country".

Oh yeah- EVERYTHING went across the wire- domain authentication, DHCP, everything. 150 people in this office, everything went to the other side of the country. It all went back to the first days they opened the office, 6 years ago. They only had two employees then, and it worked fine. Of course, with no DC, DNS, nothing onsite, it did not scale well. Sure enough, when they started building the Boeing plant, someone gave an electrician the keys to a backhoe- and he cut a pair of 1500-pair fibers. Yes, *a PAIR of 1500-PAIR" fibers. Took us down, and everything within a few miles for several days.

I once wired 4 ports from a patch panel that were digital phones in to a single rj45 then through to a floor port with the opposite at the other end.

so it would have been one pair from the cat 5 in to each rj45 plug at each end. it got four phones where they needed to be but it wasn't pretty

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Networking is much like making love to a beautiful woman
Slide your equipment in to the rack, Stick your plug in the socket, and if you have done it right at the end everyone is happy

I wouldn't say this was a bad thing at all. You had a problem and you worked through it. The phones would have only needed a pair each.
As long as you labelled it all up so someone didn't try and use the patch

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"Right actions in the future are the best apologies for bad actions in the past."

I had to hacksaw a rack to get the fibre going between the floors out of a vent hole in the rack top.

I was asked to run 60 cat5 cables from one rack to the next one. They had no side access between them. Boss asked 2 engineers to hacksaw holes in the top of the rack to prepare for me to come later to stick the cables in.

I got there on the night to see they had made a hole about 1.5 inches in diameter. Not only that but all the edges were completely jagged and pointy. Basically they just bent the metal pieces upwards. How am I supposed to stick 60 cables through this?

So I ended up screwing the tops of both racks and fed the cables through on both. Both lids are at angles now with cables ties holding them down...

I got the job done

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www.mellowd.co.uk/ccie/